Some papers of Muslim Hertage (historical Perspective)

The renaissance of astronomy in Baghdad
in the 9th and 10th centuries

Short link

by! David A King [Note of the editor] This article was published in 2003 as: David A. King,
"The renaissance of astronomy in Baghdad in the ninth and tenth
centuries: A list of publications, mainly from the last 50 years” at www.davidaking.org (link). We are
grateful to Prof. King for permitting republishing on theMuslim Heritage website.

Introductory remarks

"The ancients distinguished themselves through their chance discovery of
basic principles and the invention of ideas. The modern scholars, on the
other hand, distinguish themselves through the invention of a multitude of
scientific details, the simplification of difficult (problems), the combination of
scattered (information), and the explanation of (material which already exists
in) coherent (form). The ancients came to their particular achievements by
virtue of their priority in time, and not on account of any natural qualification
and intelligence. Yet, how many things escaped them which then became
the original inventions of modern scholars, and how much did the former
leave for the latter to do!" The poet, litterateur and maker of astronomical
instruments Hibat Allah al-BaghdadT (Baghdad, ca. 1120), partly quoting the
astronomer-mathematician Abu Ja’far al-Khazin (Rayy, ca. 980), as
translated by Franz Rosenthal, "AI-AsturlabT and as-Samaw’al on Scientific
Progress", Osiris 9 (1950), pp. 555-564, esp. p. 559.

"The legacy of the translation movement in Islamic societies was profound and manifold, but it is historically
inaccurate to talk about it in isolation from the Arabic scientific and philosophical tradition which fostered it
throughout its existence. One should avoid generating the false impression that the translations, once
executed in a receptive phase, caused the development of Arabic philosophical and scientific thinking during
a subsequent creative phase of this tradition." Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture (see §1 ), p. 192.

From Left: Professor Salim Al-Hassani, Professor David King, Professor Jeffrey Hoffman, Professor Hamid Al-Naimiy
and Professor Martin Barslow from Second International Conference in Sharjah (Source)

No concerted effort has been made in Frankfurt - or anywhere else, for that matter - to document the
history of astronomy in eighth-, ninth- and tenth-century Baghdad. Rather, most of the studies listed below
just evolved naturally as a result of the fact that most of what we specialists study in relation to astronomy in
medieval Islam and medieval Europe began right there and then. Also, we can only claim to have scratched
the surface of this subject. Many texts originally from this milieu have been listed by F. Sezgin in his bio-
bibliographical survey of Arabic literature up to ca. 1100 (see below). Most of the original manuscripts used
by the Frankfurt team were discovered in libraries around the world in the 1970s and 80s.

The reader should be aware of the existence of earlier studies by such scholars as the Sedillots pere et fils,
C. A. Nallino, H. Suter, O. Neugebauer, D. Pingree, E. S. Kennedy, and P. Kunitzsch. Some of them could
not possibly be left out of this bibliography for sentimental reasons, even though they predate, say, 1980.
For the newcomer to this field, the best place to start is Kennedy et al., Studies (§1). For bio-bibliographical
information on Muslim scientists go to Sezgin, GAS, V-VII (till ca. 1100); Suter, MAA, Matvievskaya &
Rosenfeld, MAMS, and Cairo ENL Survey (all periods); and Ihsanoglu et al., Ottoman Scientific
Literature{ Ottoman Empire) (all listed in §1).

There has been a tendency amongst scholars - even
specialists in the history of Islamic science - to be pre-
occupied with the Graeco-Arabic translation movement, as if
it were the only aspect of Islamic science that was of any
ultimate concern. Fortunately one scholar, David Pingree,
has been concerned also with the Indian and Iranian
influence in early Islamic astronomy. Many of the studies
listed below deal with an "Islamic astronomy" in the
9 th century that was already a respectable discipline in its
own right, but this phenomenon occurred at the very same
time as the main translations of such works as
the Almagest became available. Perhaps we should not call i
"Islamic astronomy", but rather "astronomy in Islamic
civilization", for a substantial number of the contributors were
not Muslims, but rather Christians, Jews or Sabians; these
were, however, always a minority on the overall scene. Some
of the Muslims involved were Arabs, but a substantial
number, even a majority, were originally of Iranian or Central
Asian origin. Call it what you will, "Islamic astronomy" used
methods and materials that were ultimately of Greek or Indo-
Iranian origin, but it also produced with remarkable speed a
corpus of new methods and materials, including all sorts of tables computed specifically for Baghdad. So, for
example, we note that the astronomical handbook with tables prepared for Caliph al-Ma’mun ca. 825 and
known as the Mumtahan Zfj appeared on the scene at the same time as the first real translation of
the Almagest. The Mumtahan Zlj is already an Islamic work, quite different in style and content from
the Almagest. Also, at the same time, there appeared a cluster of other works that have come to light only in
recent years: these deal with astronomical instrumentation and the application of astronomical procedures to
aspects of Islamic religious ritual: the lunar calendar, the astronomically-defined times of Muslim prayer, and
the sacred direction (qibla) towards the Kaaba in Mecca. Since much of later Islamic astronomy was devoted
to such themes, it is an error to think that even later Islamic astronomy was heavily dependent on any Greek
tradition. Already by the 9 th century it was "Islamic", and such it remained for a millennium thereafter. The
fact that there existed an important tradition of translations of Greek works and commentaries
thereon within Islamic astronomy but without overpowering influence on it - the amount of influence was
dependent on time, on location and on the personalities involved - should be taken into account. In any
case, since the Graeco-Arabic translation movement has received considerable attention it seems
appropriate now to take a broader look at Islamic astronomy. Certainly a serious study of the birth and early
development of Islamic science is still a task for the future.

The reader should also be aware that this is not a bibliography of Islamic astronomy as such; also, many
works on early Islamic mathematics could have been included but have not been. (Bibliographies of the
history of Islamic mathematics tend to overlook astronomy, even though the history of Islamic mathematical
methods cannot be written without taking astronomical works into consideration.) Similar bibliographies could
be prepared - but not in Frankfurt at this time - for, say, studies of al-BTrunT, of regional schools of Islamic
astronomy, of astronomy in al-Andalus, of astronomy in the service of Islam, etc.

A rich bibliography on transmission is in Richard P. Lorch, "Greek-Arabic-Latin: The Transmission of
Mathematical Texts in the Middle Ages", Science in Context 14 (2001 ), pp. 313-331 .

Please click here for useful link for the bibliography of Islamic mathematics and astronomy is:

Another link providing a list of new studies on Islamic astronomical instrumentation is:

The abbreviations of personal names refer to members and guests (asterisked) of the Frankfurt Institute for
the History of Science, past and present:

• BS - Burkhard Stautz

• BvD - Benno van Dalen

• DAK - David A. King

• FC - Frangois Charette

• JH - Jan Hogendijk (Utrecht)

• PS - Petra Schmidl

• MV* - Merce Viladrich (Barcelona)

For the numerous publications of Fuat Sezgin and his colleagues at the Institute for the History of Arabo-
Islamic Sciences in Frankfurt please click here.

Table of contents of the bibliography

1 . General and basic works on Islamic astronomy, including collections of articles

2 . O ve rvie w a rticles

3. Current projects in Frankfurt

3.1 Medieval Islamic astronomical handbooks

3.2 Medieval Islamic and European astronomical instruments

4. Astronomy in Baghdad in the 9th and 10th centuries - specialized studies.

4.1 The foreign sources of Islamic astronomy

4.2 Islamic mathematical astronomy

4.3 Lunar crescent visibility

4.4 Astronomical timekeeping and the regulation of the times of prayer

4.5 Astronomical instruments - general

4.6 Astronomical instruments - the astrolabe

4.7 Astronomical instruments - the quadrant

4.8 Astronomical instruments - miscellaneous

4.9 Determination of the sacred direction (qibla)

4.10 Mathematical astrology

4.11 Geodetic measurements

4.12 Mathematical geography and cartography

4.13 Sacred folk geography

4.14 Folk astronomy

4.15 Sacred cosmology

4.16 Miscellaneous

Illustration by al-BirunT of different phases of the moon, from Kitab al-tafhim. Source: Seyyed Hossein Nasr , Islamic Science: An Illustrated
Study, London: World of Islam Festival, 1976. (Source)

1 . General and basic works on Islamic astronomy, including collections of articles

[Note: For more general works and also for published conference proceedings see King & Samso, "Islamic
Astronomical Handbooks and Tables" (cited below), pp. 98-105.]

Aaboe Festschrift: J. Lennart Berggren and Bernard R. Goldstein,
eds., From Ancient Omens to Statistical Mechanics: Essays on
the Exact Sciences Presented to Asger Aaboe, Acta Historica
Scientiarum Naturalium et Medicinalium (Copenhagen) 39 (1987).

[Contains a few articles on Islamic topics.]

AIOS: Arabische Instrumente in orientalistischen Studien, Fuat
Sezgin et al., eds., 6 vols., Frankfurt am Main: Institut fur
Geschichte der Arabisch-lslamischen Wissenschaften, 1990-91,
repr. as Islamic Astronomy and Mathematics, vols. 85-90 (1998),
with 6 further volumes ibid., vols. 91-96 (1998). [Reprints of
studies on Islamic instruments from the 19 th and early
20 th century: a monumental total of over 5,000 pages.]

'Abbas al-'Azzawi, Ta'rikh 'ilm al-falakfi 'l-'lraq wa-'alaqatihi bi-’l-
aqtar al-islamiyya wa-’l-'arabiyya fi ’l-'uhud al-taliya li-ayyam al-
'Abbasiyyin min sanat 656 FI - 1258 M ila sanat 1335 FI = 1917
M[- A Flistory of Astronomy in Iraq and its relations with Islamic
and Arab regions in the period following the Abbasids, from 1258
A.D. to 1917 A.D.], Baghdad: Iraqi Scientific Academy (al-Majma 1
al-'ilmT al-'lraqT, 1958. [A curious work, not without utility. The
author was completely unaware of any Western sources. His bio-bibliographical survey of numerous Muslim
astronomers is partly based on manuscripts that were available to him in Iraq.]

J. Lennart Berggren, Episodes in the Mathematics of Medieval Islam, New York, etc.: Springer, 1986. [The
only general work on mathematics in Islamic civilization to take seriously the fact that much of the source
material is to be found in astronomical sources.]

Cairo ENL Survey: David A. King, A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library,
(American Research Center in Egypt, Catalogs, vol. 5), Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1987. [A
supplement to the standard bio-bibliographical sources.]

DSB: Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 14 vols. and 2 supp. vols., New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970-
80. [Contains numerous articles on Muslim scientists.]

EFIAS: Encyclopedia of the Flistory of Arabic Science, Roshdi Rashed, with Regis Morelon, eds., 3 vols.,
London: Routledge, 1996. [Contributions of varied quality. Also available in French (Paris: Seuil, 1997) and
in Arabic (Beirut, 1997).]

El 2 : The Encyclopaedia of Islam, newedn., 11 vols. and supplements, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960 to present.
[The standard reference work for Islamic Studies, also available in French.] See in addition to occasional
articles on Muslim scientists the following selected thematic articles:

"Anwa’" (aspects of folk astronomy), "Asturlab" (astrolabe), "’llm
al-hay’a" (here: astronomy generally), "’llm al-hisab" (arithmetic),
"Kamar" (moon), "Kibla" (religious and astronomical aspects of
the sacred direction), "Kutb" (celestial pole), "Layl and Nahar"
(aspects of folk astronomy), "Makka. iv: as centre of the world"
(sacred geography), "Manazil" (lunar mansions), "Matali”' (right
and oblique ascensions), "Matla’" (astronomical risings and
settings), "Mayl" (declination and obliquity), "Mikat. ii.
astronomical aspects" (astronomical timekeeping), "Mintaka"
(ecliptic, zodiac and obliquity), "Mizwala" (sundial), "Nudjum"
(stars); "Nudjum, ‘llm ahkam al-" (astrology), "RTh" (winds in the
folk-astronomical tradition), "Rub’" (quadrant), "Samt" (direction),
"Shakkaziyya" (universal astrolabic projections), "Shams" (sun),
"Ta’rTkh. 2. Era chronology in astronomical handbooks"
(calendrics in zTjes), "Tasa" (magnetic compass), "ZTdj"
(astronomical handbooks and tables).

Gerhard EndrelJ, "Die wissenschaftliche Literatur", Kapitel 8
in Grundrili der Arabischen Philologie, Band II:
Litteraturwissenschaft, Helmut Gatje, ed., Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig
Reichert, 1987, pp. 400-506. [Avery useful overview.]

Goldstein, Studies : Bernard R. Goldstein, Theory and Observation in Ancient and Medieval Astronomy,
London: Variorum, 1985. [Reprints of 24 studies.]

Goldstein Festschrift: Astronomy and Astrology from the Babylonians to Kepler — Essays Presented to
Bernard R. Goldstein on the Occasion of his 65 th Birthday, Peter Barker, Alan C. Bowen, Jose Chabas, Gad
Freudenthal and Tzvi Langermann, eds., to be published in a special issue of Centaurus in 2003. [Contains
some articles on Islamic astronomy.]

Hartner, Studies, l-ll: Willy Hartner, Oriens-Occidens - Ausgewahlte Schriften zur Wissenschafts- und
Kulturgeschichte - Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1968 (I), and Oriens-Occidens
- Ausgewahlte Schriften zur Wissenschafts- und Kulturgeschichte, Band II, Yasukatsu Maeyama, ed.,
Hildesheim, etc.: Georg Olms, 1984 (II). [Reprints of numerous studies.]

Flartner Festschrift: PRISMATA - Naturwissenschaftsgeschichtliche Studien - Festschrift fur Willy Flartner,
Yasukatsu Maeyama and Walter G. Saltzer, eds., Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1977. [Contains some articles
on Islamic science.]

Leo A. Mayer, Islamic Astrolabists and Their Works, Geneva: Albert Kundig, 1956, with a supplement in Aus
der Welt der islamischen Kunst, Richard Ettinghausen, ed., Berlin: Gebruder Mann, 1959, pp. 293-296, both
repr. in A/OS(§1), XII [= IMA (§1), vol. 96], pp. 141-285, and 291-294. [The standard work; lists several
makers from Abbasid Iraq.]

Oklahoma 1992 and 1993 Conference Proceedings: Tradition, Transmission, Transformation: Proceedings
of Two Conferences on Pre-modern Science Field at the University of Oklahoma, F. Jamil Ragep & Sally P.
Ragep, with Steven J. Livesey, eds., Leiden, New York & Cologne: E. J. Brill, 1996. [Contains some articles
on Islamic science.]

Ihsanoglu et al., Ottoman Scientific Literature: Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu et al., Osmanli astronomi literaturu

tarihi- History of Astronomy Literature during the Ottoman Period, 2 vols., Osmanli matematik literaturu
tarihi - History of Astronomy Literature during the Ottoman Period, 2 vols., Osmanli cografya literaturu tarihi
- History of Geographical Literature during the Ottoman Period, (Studies and Sources on the History of
Science, Series No. 7, 8. 9), Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), 1997,
1999, and 2000, respectively. [A monumental bio-bibliographical survey of Ottoman scientific literature, in
Turkish.]

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Islamic Geography. Islamic Geography, Fuat Sezgin, with Mazen
Amawi, Carl Ehrig-Eggert and Eckhard Neubauer et al., eds., 278 [!!] |
vols. to date, Frankfurt am Main: Institut fur Geschichte der Arabisch-I
Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1992 to present. [Facsimile reprints of j
early writings, mainly 19 th - and early-20 th century.]

Islamic Mathematics and Astronomy: Islamic Mathematics and
Astronomy, eidem, eds., 112 [!!] vols to date, Frankfurt am Main:
Institut fur Geschichte der Arabisch-lslamischen Wissenschaften,

1997 to present. [Reprints of texts and studies mainly from the
19 th and early 20 th centuries.]

Kennedy, "Z/y Survey": E. S. Kennedy, "A Survey of Islamic
Astronomical Tables", Transactions of the American Philosophical
Society, N. S., 46:2 (1956), pp. 123-177, repr. with separate
pagination, n.d. [ca. 1990]. [Lists some 125 medieval astronomical handbooks with tables of the kind known
as zTje s. This work inspired most of the research on Islamic mathematical astronomy over the next 50-odd
years. See now the interim report by King & Samso (§1), and the new zfj project described in §3a.]

Kennedy, Studies: E. S. Kennedy, Astronomy and Astrology in the Medieval Islamic World, (Variorum
Collected Studies Series: CS600), Aldershot & Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate-Variorum, 1998. [Reprints of 19
studies.]

Kennedy et al., Studies: E. S. Kennedy, Colleagues and Former Students, Studies in the Islamic Exact
Sciences, David A. King and Mary Helen Kennedy, eds., Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1983.
[Reprints of 69 studies, including several based on early Iraqi sources.]

Kennedy Festschrift: From Deferent to Equant: Studies in the History of Science in the Ancient and Medieval
Near East in Honor of E. S. Kennedy, David A. King and George Saliba, eds., Annals of the New York
Academy of Sciences (500), 1 986. [Contains contributions from 34 leading experts in the field and
represents the state of the art in the mid 1980s.]

King, SATMI : David A. King, Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping in
Medieval Islam, 12 pts., in press with E. J. Brill, Leiden. Parts l-VI and X-
XII are to appear with the title The Call of the Muezzin.

King, Studies, A-C: David A. King, Islamic Mathematical Astronomy,
London: Variorum, 2 nd revised edn., Aldershot (U.K.): Variorum, 1993
(A), Islamic Astronomical Instruments, London: Variorum, 1987, repr.
Aldershot: Variorum, 1995 (B); and Astronomy in the Service of Islam,
Aldershot (U.K.): Variorum, 1993. [Reprints of 18+22+14 articles.]

King & Samso, "Islamic Astronomical Handbooks and Tables": David A.
King and Julio Samso, with a contribution by Bernard R. Goldstein,
"Astronomical Handbooks and Tables from the Islamic World (750-1900):
An Interim Report", Suhayl - Journal for the History of the Exact and
Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation (Barcelona) 2 (2001), pp. 9-105. [A
supplement to Kennedy, "Zij Survey" (see above), preliminary to the
publication of the results of the zij project described in §3a.j

Paul Kunitzsch, Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1961. [A
standard work.]

Kunitzsch, Studies: Paul Kunitzsch, The Arabs and the Stars, Northampton: Variorum, 1989. [Reprints of 24
studies. See also Kunitzsch’s numerous other publications on star-catalogues and star-names.]

Kunitzsch Festschrift: Sic itur ad astra. Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften.
Festschrift fur den Arabisten Paul Kunitzsch zum 70. Geburtstag, Menso Folkerts and Richard P. Lorch,
eds., Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 2000. [Contains several relevant contributions to our subject.]

Langermann, Studies: Y. Tzvi Langermann, The Jews and the Sciences in the Middle Ages, Aldershot, etc.:
Ashgate-Variorum, 1999. [Reprints of 10 studies.]

Lorch, Studies: Richard P. Lorch, Arabic Mathematical Sciences- Instruments, Texts, Transmission,
Aldershot: Variorum, 1995. [Reprints of 18 studies.]

Matvievskaya & Rosenfeld, MAMS: Galina P. Matvievskaya and Boris A. Rosenfeld, Matematiki i astronomi
musulmanskogo srednevekovya i ikh trudi, 3 vols., Moscow: Nauk, 1983. [A new, updated version of
Suter, MAA, in Russian. An English translation has been published in 2003 by IRCICA, Istanbul.]

Nallino, Scritti, V: Carlo A. Nallino, Raccolta di scritti editi e inediti, vol. V: Astrologia - Astronomia -
Geografia, Roma: Istituto per I’Oriente, 1944. [A study of fundamental importance.]

Pingree Festschrift: A Festschrift in honour of David Pingree, edited by Charles Burnett, Jan Hogendijk and
Kim Plofker, Leiden: E. J. Brill, in press. [Contains several studies relevant to our topic.]

Sabra, Studies: Abdelhamid I. Sabra, Optics, Astronomy and Logic — Studies in Arabic Science and
Philosophy, Aldershot (U.K.): Variorum, 1994. [Reprints of 17 studies.]

World-Maps for Finding
the Direction and Distance
to Mecca

Innovation and Tradition in Islamic Science

Saliba, Studies: George Saliba, A History of Arabic Astronomy - Planetary]

Theories during the Golden Age of Islam, (New York University Studies in
Near Eastern Civilization, XIX), New York: New York University Press,

1994. [Reprints of 15 articles, dealing mainly with planetary theory.]

Julio Samso, Las ciencias de los antiguos en al-Andalus, Madrid:

MAPFRE, 1992. [The first general work on science in Muslim Spain.]

Samso, Studies: idem, Islamic Astronomy and Medieval Spain, Aldershot:

Variorum, 1994. [Reprints of 20 studies.]

Samso: see also the many studies of the Millas-Vemet-Samso Barcelona
school, some of which are listed atwww.ub.es/arab.

Samso: see also King & Samso above.

Aydin Sayili, The Observatory in Islam, (Publications of the Turkish Historical Society, Series VII: No. 38),
Ankara, 1960, repr. New York: Arno, 1981. [A brilliant study, not yet superseded.]

Schoy, Beitrage: Carl Schoy: Beitrage zur arabisch-islamischen Mathematik und Astronomie, Fuat Sezgin et
a/., eds., 2 vols., Frankfurt am Main: Institut fur Geschichte der Arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, 1988.
[Reprints of many early studies.]

Sezgin, GAS: Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, 12 vols. to date, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1967
onwards, from 2000 onwards Frankfurt am Main: Institut fur Geschichte der Arabisch-islamischen
Wissenschaften, especially V: Mathematik, 1974, VI: Astronomie, 1978, VII: Astrologie, Meteorologie und
Verwandtes, 1 979; X-XII: Mathematische Geographie und Kartographie im Islam und ihr Fortleben im
Abendland, 2000. [The basic bio-bibliographical research tool for all Arabic literature up to ca. 1100. For
additional materials relevant to the Baghdad scene see the reviews listed below.]

Sezgin: see also Islamic Astronomy and Mathematics] Islamic Geography] and all publications of the Institut
fur Geschichte der Arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, Frankfurt am Main.

DAK, reviews of Sezgin, GAS, V and VI, in "Notes on the Sources for the History of Early Islamic
Mathematics", Journal of the American Oriental Society 99 (1979), pp. 450-459; and "Early Islamic
Astronomy", Journal for the History of Astronomy 12 (1981), pp. 55-59. [These identify some new
manuscript sources.]

Suter, Beitrage: Heinrich Suter, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Mathematik und Astronomie im Islam, Fuat
Sezgin etal., eds., 2 vols., Frankfurt am Main: Institut fur Geschichte der Arabisch-islamischen
Wissenschaften, 1986. [Reprints of many early studies.]

Suter, MAA: idem, "Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke", Abhandlungen zur
Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften 10 (1900), and "Nachtrage und Berichtigungen", ibid. 14
(1902), pp. 157-185, repr. Amsterdam: The Oriental Press, 1982, and again in idem, Beitrage, I, pp. 1-285
and 286-314. [This has been the main bio-bibliographical reference for Muslim scientists for the past
century.]

Manfred Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972. [A valuable
resource, especially for astrology.]

Islamic
Science
and the
Making of

the European
Renaissance

George Saliba

Daniel M. Varisco, "Islamic Folk Astronomy", in Astrononomy across Cultures: Astrononomy across Cultures
- The [I] History of Non-Western Astronomy, Helaine Selin, ed., Dordrecht, etc.: Kluwer, 2000, pp. 615-650.
[A useful survey of many aspects of the subject.]

Varisco, Studies: idem, Medieval Folk Astronomy and Agriculture in Arabia and the Yemen, (Variorum
Collected Studies Series: CS585), Aldershot & Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate - Variorum, 1997. [Reprints of
numerous studies.]

Vernet, Estudios: Juan Vernet, Estudios sobre historia de la ciencia medieval, Barcelona: Universidad de
Barcelona (Facultad de Filologfa) §&§ Bellaterra: Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (Facultad de Filosofia
y Letras), 1 979. // Vernet, ed., Textos y estudios, A-B: idem, ed., Textos y estudios sobre astronomia
espahola en el siglo XIII, and Nuevos estudios sobre astronomia espahola en ei siglo de Alfonso X,
Barcelona: Instituto de Filologfa, Instutucion "Mila y Fontanals", Consejo Superior de Invetigaciones
Cientfficas, 1981 and 1983. //Vernet, ed., Historia de la ciencia arabe: idem, ed., Historia de la ciencia
arabe, Madrid: Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales, 1981 . // Vernet, Studies: Juan
Vernet, De Abd al-Rahman I a Isabel II - Recopilacion de estudios dispersos sobre Historia de la Ciencia y
la Cultura Espahola ofrecida al autor por sus discipulos con ocasion de su LXV aniversario, Barcelona:
Universidad de Barcelona, Instituto "Millas Vallicrosa" de Historia de la Ciencia Arabe §&§ Promociones y
Publicaciones Universitarias, S.A., 1989. [Mainly concerned with science in al-Andalus.]

Vernet Festschrift: From Baghdad to Barcelona. Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences in Honour of Prof.

Juan Vernet, Josep Casulleras and Julio Samso, eds., ( Anuari de Filologia (Universitat de Barcelona) XX
(1996) B-2), 2 vols., Barcelona: Instituto "Millas Vallicrosa" de Historia de la Ciencia Arabe, 1996. [Contains
contributions from 28 leading experts in the field and represents the state of the art in the mid 1990s.]

See also Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in
Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society (2 nd -4 th /8 th -10 th centuries), London & New York: Routledge, 1998,
which provides part of the background for studies on early Islamic science.

Aydin Sayili and George Sarton (Source)

2 Overview articles

Carlo Alfonso Nallino, "Sun, Moon, and Stars (Muhammadan)", in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics,
James Hastings, ed., 12 vols., Edinburgh: T. &T. Clark, 1921, vol. XII (1921), pp. 88-101. [The best account
of Islamic astronomy and astrology ever published.]

Ahmad Dallal, "Islamic Science, Medicine, and Technology": idem, "Science, Medicine, and Technology -
The Making of a Scientific Culture", in The Oxford History of lslam\ The Oxford History of Islam, John L.
Esposito, ed., Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 154-213. [Treats astronomy within the
context of the entire Islamic scientific endeavour.]

Bernard R. Goldstein, "The Making of Astronomy in Early Islam", Nuncius: Annali di Storia della
Sc/e/iza(Florence) 1 (1986), pp. 79-92. [On responses to Greek and Hindu astronomical traditions in early
Islam.]

Bernard R. Goldstein, "Astronomy and the Jewish Community in Early Islam", Aleph 1 (2001), pp. 17-57. [A
survey of Jewish involvement in astronomy in the early centuries of Islam.]

DAK, "Islamic Astronomy", in Christopher Walker, ed., Astronomy before the Telescope, London: British
Museum Press, 1996, pp. 143-174. [An overview for the non-specialist reader.]

George Saliba, "Astrology/Astronomy, Islamic" in Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 13 vols., New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1982-89, vol. I, 1982, pp. 616-624, repr. in idem, Studies (§1), no. 2. [An overview for the
non-specialist reader.]

George Saliba, "The Role of the Astrologer in Medieval Islamic Society", in Bulletin d’etudes
orientales{ Damascus: Institut Frangais de Damas), 44 (1992), pp. 45-67 and 6 figs. [A useful overview.]

DAK, "Science in the Service of Religion: The Case of Islam", impact of science on society (UNESCO), no.

1 59 (1991 ), pp. 245-262, repr. in King, Studies (§1 ), C-1 . [An overview for the non-specialist reader.]

Ahmed Dallal, "Islamic Paradigms for the Relationship between Science and Religion" (unpublished,
accessible on Internet). ["Science" is restricted to astronomy, further restricted to solar, lunar and planetary
models. No mention is made of "astronomy in the service of Islam", or of the folk science cultivated by the
legal scholars of Islam.]

See also Howard R. T urner, Science in Medieval Islam - An Illustrated Introduction, Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1995. [Useful for schools and junior colleges.]

3 Current projects in Frankfurt

3.1 Medieval Islamic astronomical handbooks

A project to document all of the medieval Islamic astronomical handbooks known as zijes, of which over 200
were compiled between 750 and 1850, conducted by Benno van Dalen, and supported by the German
Research Organization (DFG) during 2000-2004. Particular attention is given to parameters underlying
tables, which usually provide a clear indication of initiative or borrowing. See further

www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~dalen/ , then params.htm and programs.htm.

This project was inspired by E. S. Kennedy’s 1956 Z/y Survey (§1), to which now add the interim report in
King & Samso (§1).* A major publication by Benno van Dalen is anticipated. On the methodology see already
his studies: "A Statistical Method for Recovering Unknown Parameters from Medieval Astronomical
Tables", Centaurus 32 (1989), pp. 85-145; and Ancient and Mediaeval Astronomical Tables: Mathematical
Structure and Parameter Values, Utrecht: Universiteit Utrecht, 1992.

* This article was prepared on the occasion of the Encyclopaedia of Islam reaching the letter "Z" but turned
out to be too long to be accepted for the article "ZTdj".

3.2 Medieval Islamic and European astronomical instruments

A project to catalogue all medieval astronomical instruments, both Islamic and European, conducted by
David A. King, and supported by the German Research Organization (DFG) during 1992-96 and 1996-2002.
See further DAK, "Medieval Astronomical Instruments: A Catalogue in Preparation", Bulletin of the Scientific
Instrument Society 31 (Dec., 1 991 ), pp. 3-7, and for an overview of the potential of medieval instruments as
historical sources see DAK, "Astronomical Instruments between East and West", in Harry Kuhnel,
ed.,Kommunikation zwischen Orient und Okzident, Vienna: Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
(Sitzungsberichte, Phil. -Hist. Klasse, vol. 619), 1994, pp. 143-198.

For a table of contents (from 1 991 ) and a list of publications relating to medieval instruments, see:
www.uni-frankfurt.de/fbl 3/ign/instrument-catalogue.html .

Additional funding and new collaborators will be necessary to complete this project.

4 Astronomy in Baghdad in the 9 th and 10 th centuries - specialized studies
[Note: On the sources known before ca. 1975 see Sezgin, GAS, V-VII (cited in §1).]

4.1 The foreign sources of Islamic astronomy

[Note: Start with Nallino, Scritti (§1). Various articles listed in other sections of this bibliography deal with
materials from lost Indian and Iranian works.]

David Pingree, "The Fragments of the Works of Ya’qub ibn Tariq", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 26
(1968), pp. 97-125, and "The Fragments of the Works of al-Fazari", ibid. 29 (1970), pp. 103-123.
[Reconstructions of the earliest astronomical writings in Arabic, now lost, from citations in later sources.]

David Pingree, "The Greek Influence on Early Islamic Mathematical Astronomy", Journal of the American
Oriental Society 93 (1973), pp. 32-43, and "Indian Influence on Sasanian and Early Islamic Astronomy and
Astrology", The Journal of Oriental Research (Madras) 34-35 (1964-66/1973), pp. 118-126. [Studies of
major importance.]

Abdelhamid I. Sabra, "The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek Science in Medieval Islam:
A Preliminary Statement", History of Science 25 (1987), pp. 223-243, repr. in idem, Studies, I. [An important
study.]

George Saliba, "Arabic Science and the Greek Legacy", in Vernet Festschrift {§ 1), I, pp. 19-37. [A useful

overview.]

Richard P. Lorch, "Greek-Arabic-Latin: The Transmission of Mathematical Texts in the Middle
Ages ", Science in Context 14 (2001), pp. 313-331. [Contains a rich bibliography.]

George Saliba, "Early Arabic Critique of Ptolemaic Cosmology: A Ninth-Century Text on the Motion of
Celestial Spheres", Journal for the History of Astronomy 25 (12994), pp. 115-141. [Text by Muhammad ibn
Musa, mid-9 th -century Baghdad.]

Paul Kunitzsch, Der Almagest. Die Syntaxis Mathematica des Claudius Ptiolemaus in Arabisch-lateinischer
Oberlieferung", Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1974; Ibn al-Salah, Zur Kritik der Koordinatenuberlieferung im
Sternkataiog des Almagest, Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1975; Claudius Ptolemaus - Der
Sternkatalog des Almagest - Die arabisch-mittelalterliche Tradition, 3 vols., Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz,
1986-1991. [Standard works.]

Paul Kunitzsch, "Uber das Fruhstadium der arabischen Aneignung des antiken Gutes", Saeculum 26 (1975),

pp. 268-282.

Paul Kunitzsch, "Arabische Astronomie im 8. bis 10. Jahrhundert", in P. L. Butzerand D. Lohrmann,
eds., Science in Western and Eastern Civilization in Carolingian Times, Basle: Birkhauser, 1993, pp. 205-220.
[An important essay.]

Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and
Early Abbasid Society (2 nd -4 th /8 th -10 th centuries), London & New York: Routledge, 1998. [An important new
study, with a rich bibliography.]

4.2 Islamic mathematical astronomy

See the overview article of King & Samso in §1 and the description of the zfj project in §3a.

[Notes: The only surviving version of the only surviving version of the astronomical handbook of al-
Khwarizmi, a Latin translation of an Andalusi recension, was published by H. Suter in 1914, with a translation
of the text and commentary by O. Neugebauer in 1962 (see below). The Mumtahan Zfj of Yahya ibn Abi
Mansur and the Zij of Habash remain unpublished, although J. Vernet and M.-Th. Debarnot have published
overviews of the Escorial manuscript of the former and of the Istanbul manuscript of the latter (see below).

Most 19 th - and early-20 th -century studies are reprinted in the multi-volume Islamic Mathematics and
Astronomy (§1).

There are numerous investigations of early Islamic materials in Kennedy et al., Studies, including papers on
different aspects of the solar, lunar and planetary astronomy in the 9 th -century zijes of Yahya ibn Abi Mansur
and Habash, and studies based on (the then) newly-developed computer-assisted analyses of medieval
tables. Interested persons should get hold of the book.]

The Verified Astronomical Tables for the Caliph ai-Ma’mun - Al-Zij al-Ma’muni al-mumtahan by Yahya ibn
Abi Mansur ... , Frankfurt: Institut fur Geschichte der Arabisch-lslamischen Wissenschaften, 1986. [Facsimile
of the unique manuscript of a later recension of this work preserved in El Escorial.]

Juan Vernet, "Las Tabulae Probatae", in Homenaje a Millas-Vallicrosa, 2 vols., Barcelona: Consejo Superior
de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1959, II, pp. 501-522, repr. in idem, Estudios (§1), pp. 191-212. [The first and

last serious study of this fundamental work.]

Heinrich Suter eta/., eds., Die astronomischen Tafeln des Muhammed ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi ... , in Kgl.
Danske Vidensk. Skrifter, 7. R., Hist, og filos. Afd., 3:1 (1914); and Otto Neugebauer, The Astronomical
Tables of al-Khwarizmi, in Kgl. Danske Vidensk. hist.-fil. Skrifter (Copenhagen) 4:2 (1962). [The Latin text
and tables of the only surviving version, followed by an English translation of the introduction and a
commentary.]

Bernard R. Goldstein, Ibn al-Muthanna’s Commentary on the Astronomical Tables of al-Khwarizmi, New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1967. [Relates to the original (tost) version of al-Khwarizmi’s
astronomical handbook.]

The Book of the Reasons behind Astronomical Tables (Kitab ft ‘ilal al-zijat) by ‘AH ibn Sulayman al-Hashimi,
Fuad I. Haddad, E. S. Kennedy and David Pingree, eds., Delmar, N.Y.: Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints,

1981 . [An important source of information on the earliest Islamic z/yes, by an author active ca. 890, probably
in Baghdad.]

E. S. Kennedy and Hala Salam, "Solar and Lunar Tables in Early Islamic Astronomy", Journal of the
American Oriental Society 87 (1967), pp. 492-497, repr. in Kennedy efa/., Studies (§1), pp. 108-113. [Deals
with th eMumtahan Zij and the Z/y of Habash.]

E. S. Kennedy and Walid Ukashah, "al-Khwarizmi’s Planetary Latitude Tables", Centaurus 14 (1969), pp. 86-
96, repr. in Kennedy eta!., Studies (§1), pp. 125-135.

E. S. Kennedy, "The Solar Equation in the Z/y of Yahya ibn Abi Mansur", in Hartner Festschrift (§ 1), pp. 183-
186, repr. in Kennedy eta!., Studies (§1), pp. 136-139.

E. S. Kennedy, "Parallax Theory in Islamic Astronomy", Isis 47 (1956), pp. 33-53, repr. in Kennedy et
al. , Studies (§ 1), pp. 164-184. [Includes Abbasid sources.]

E. S. Kennedy and Nazim Fares, "The Solar Eclipse Technique of Yahya ibn Abi Mansur", Journal for the
History of Astronomy 1 (1970), pp. 20-38, repr. in Kennedy et al., Studies (§ 1), pp. 185-203.

Jamil Ali as-Saleh, "Solar and Lunar Distances and Apparent Velocities in the Astronomical Tables of
Habash al-Hasib", Al-Abhath (Beirut) 23 (1970), pp. 129-177, repr. in Kennedy et al., Studies (§1), pp. 204-
252.

BvD, "Al-Khwarizmi’s Astronomical Tables Revisited: Analysis of the Equation of Time", in Vernet Festschrift,
(§1), I, pp. 195-252. [Includes a detailed investigation of what is original to al-Khwarizmi in the only surviving
version of his major work.]

A. P. Caussin de Perceval, "Le livre de la grande table Hakemite", Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la
Bibliotheque nationale 7 (An XII [= 1804]), pp. 16-240, with separate pagination in the separatum. [This
ground-breaking publication of the Arabic text with French translation of the introduction to the Z/y of Ibn
Yunus (Cairo, ca. 990) contains several dozen observation accounts, mainly of eclipses and planetary
conjunctions, by astronomers in 9 th -century Baghdad. These, and other, Islamic observation accounts have
been investigated in a series of studies by F. R. Stephenson and his colleagues at Durham University.]

Rida A. K. Irani, The Jadwal al-Taqwfm of Habash al-Hasib, unpublished Master’s dissertation, American
University of Beirut, 1 956. [Describes some extremely sophisticated tables of auxiliary trigonometric

functions from mid-9 th -century Baghdad. Should be reworked and published!]

Aydin Sayili, ’’The Introductory Section of Habash's Astronomical Tables Known as the ’’Damascene
ZY]’’, Ankara Oniversitesi Dil ve-Tarih-Cografya Facultesi Dergisi 13:4 (1955). [An important study.]

Marie-Therese Debarnot, "The Zij of Habash al-Hasib: A Survey of MS Istanbul Yeni Cami 784/2",
in Kennedy Festschrift (§1 ), pp. 35-69. [An important study of one of the most astronomical productions of
9 th -century Baghdad.]

Marie-Therese Debarnot, ed. and trans., al-Biruni: Kitab Maqalid ‘ilm al-hay’a. La trigonometrie spherique
chez les Arabes de I’est a la fin du X? siecle, Damascus: Institut Frangais de Damas (Publication no. 114),
1985. [al-Birum is a rich source for the developments in spherical trigonometry in 9 th - and 10 th -century
Baghdad.]

Regis Morelon, "Eastern Arabic Astronomy between the Eighth and Eleventh Centuries", in EFIAS (§1), I, pp.
20-57; and "L’Astronomie arabe a Bagdad au IXe siecle", Medioevo: Rivista di Storia della filosofia
medievale( Padua) 23 (1997), pp. 325-335. [Both disappointing and tending to ignore research by other
scholars.]

Regis Morelon, Thabit ibn Qurra - oeuvres d’astronomie, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1987. [Text, translation
and commentary on the works of one of the most significant Baghdad astronomers ca. 900.]

Richard P. Lorch, ed., Thabit ibn Qurra, On the Sector-Figure and Related Texts, Frankfurt: Institut fur
Geschichte der Arabisch-lslamischen Wissenschaften (Islamic Mathematics and Astronomy, vol. 108), 2001.
[The work by the 13 th -century scholar Nasir al-Din al-Tusi on this subject is far better known, but it was the
last serious work on the subject, and Thabit’s is one of the first.]

DAK, "al-Khwarizmi and New T rends in Mathematical Astronomy in the Ninth Century", Occasional Papers
on the Near East (New York University, Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies) 2 (1983), 43 pp.
[Presents some newly-discovered materials which form the basis of many of our later studies. Whilst it has
since been shown that some of these materials attributed to al-Khwarizmi in our sources are in fact due to
his contemporaries, they are particularly important for the light they shed on the "Islamicization" of
astronomy in this early period.]

JH, "Al-Khwarizmi’s Tables of the "Sine of the Hours" and the Underlying Sine Table", Historia scientiarum 42
(1991), pp. 1-12. [Reconstruction of the earliest trigonometric table in Arabic.]

F. Jamil Ragep, "Al-Battani, Cosmology, and the Early History of Trepidation in Islam", in Vernet
Festschrift (§1), pp. 267-303.

F. Jamil Ragep, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi’s Mem-oir on Astronomy (al-Tadhkira fT ‘ilm al-hay’a), 2 vols., New York,
etc.: Springer, 1993. [The introduction contains a discussion of the early history of cosmography in 8 th - and
9 th -century Baghdad.]

Bernard R. Goldstein and F. W. Sawyer, III, "Remarks on Ptolemy's Equant Model in Islamic Astronomy",
in Flartner Festschrift (§1 ), pp. 1 65-81 . [See especially p. 1 67 for a discussion of Habash and the equant
model for Venus.]

Paul Kunitzsch and Richard Lorch, "Abu Nasr and Habash on matali’ al-samt", Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der
arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften (Frankfurt) 9 (1994), pp. 43-82. [On a sophisticated topic of spherical

astronomy.]

DAK, "Universal Solutions in Islamic Astronomy", in Aaboe Festschrift {§ 1), pp. 121-132, repr. in
King, Studies(§ 1), C-VI. [Includes early Iraqi material.]

J. Lennart Berggren and Glen Van Brummelen, "Abu Sahl al-Kuhi on Rising Times", Sciamvs- Sources and
Commentaries in Exact Sciences (Kyoto, Hokuto, Japan) 2 (2001), pp. 31-46, and eidem, "Abu Sahl al-KuhT
on the Distance to the Shooting Stars", Journal for the History of Astronomy 32:2 (2001), pp. 137-151. [The
author spent time in Baghdad in the 10 th century.]

Paul Kunitzsch, "The Star-Table in the Mumtahan Zij" (in Arabic), to appear in Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der
arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften (Frankfurt). [A study of the earliest surviving star-table in Arabic.]

4.3 Lunar crescent visibility

4.3.1 Early studies by E. S. Kennedy and his colleagues and students include:

E. S. Kennedy, "The Lunar Visibility Theory of Ya’qOb ibn Tariq", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 27 (1968),
pp. 126-132, repr. in Kennedy eta!., Studies (§1), pp. 157-163.

E. S. Kennedy, "The Crescent Visibility Theory of Thabit ibn Qurra", Proceedings of the Mathematical and
Physical Society of the United Arab Republic (1960), pp. 71-74, repr. in Kennedy etai., Studies (§1), pp.
140-143. [See now the new study by Morelon listed in §4b.]

E. S. Kennedy and Muhammad Agha, "Planetary Visibility Tables in Islamic Astronomy", Centaurus! (1960),
pp. 134-140, repr. in Kennedy etai., Studies (§1), pp. 144-150. [Includes early Abbasid materials.]

E. S. Kennedy and Mardiros Janjanian, "The Crescent Visibility Table in AI-KhwarizmT’s Zip, Centaurus 1 1
(1965), pp. 73-78, repr. in Kennedy etai., Studies (§1), pp. 151-156. [As Kennedy noted, the table described
is from al-Andalus, not from Baghdad.]

4.3.2 More recent studies include:

JH, "New Light on the Lunar Visibility Table of Ya’qub ibn Tariq", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 47 (1988),
pp. 95-104. [Baghdad ca. 750. Uses sophisticated Indian mathematical methodology.]

DAK, "Some Early Islamic Tables for Determining Lunar Crescent Visibility", in Kennedy Festschrift (see §1
above), pp. 185-225, repr. in King, Studies (§ 1), C-ll. [Contains early Iraqi material, including al-Khwarizmi’s
table for Baghdad.]

JH, "Three Islamic Lunar Crescent Visibility Tables", Journal of the History of Astronomy 19 (1988), pp. 29-
44. [Contains new insights on materials presented in the paper by DAK listed above.]

4.4 Astronomical timekeeping and the regulation of the times of prayer

4.4.1 Early studies by E. S. Kennedy and his colleagues and students include:

Mark Lesley, "BTruni on Rising Times and Daylight Lengths", Centaurus 5 (1957), pp. 121-141, repr. in
Kennedy et a!., Studies (§1), pp. 253-273. [al-BTrunT is a rich source of information on early Islamic

techniques.]

Marie-Louise Davidian, "al-Birum on the Time of Day from Shadow Lengths", Journal of the American
Oriental Society 80 (1 960), pp. 330-335, repr. in Kennedy et al., Studies (§1 ), pp. 274-279. [al-Biruni is a
rich source of information on early Islamic techniques.]

Yusuf Id, "An Analemma Construction for Right and Oblique Ascensions", The Mathematics Teacher 62
(1969), pp. 669-672, repr. in Kennedy et al., Studies (§1), pp. 495-498.

Nadi Nadir, "Abu al-Wafa’ on the Solar Altitude", The Mathematics Teacher 53 (1960), pp. 460-463, repr. in
Kennedy et al., Studies (§1), pp. 280-283.

E. S. Kennedy, "al-BTruni on the Muslim Times of Prayer", in The Scholar and the Saint ... , P. J. Chelkowski,
ed., New York, N.Y., 1975, pp. 83-94, repr. Kennedy et al., Studies (§1), pp. 299-310. [al-BTruni is a mine of
information on early practices. On these definitions see now King, SATMI, IV.]

4.4.2 A more recent study is:

DAK, Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping in Medieval Islamic Civilization, 12 pts., in press with E.
J. Brill, Leiden. Contains:

I: A Survey of Tables for Regulating Time by the Sun and Stars (previously unpublished). [Contains all
known material from early Baghdad.]

II: A Survey of Tables for Regulating the Times of Prayer (previously unpublished). [Contains all known
material from early Baghdad.]

Ill: A Survey of Arithmetical Shadow-Schemes for Time-Reckoning (an earlier version was published in
1993). [Includes material from early Baghdad.]

IV: On the Times of Prayer in Islam (previously unpublished). [Focuses on developments in 8 th -century
Baghdad.]

VI: Universal Solutions in Medieval Islamic Astronomy (earlier versions published in 1987-88). [Includes all
known early Baghdad materials.]

VII: An Approximate Formula for Timekeeping (750-1900) (previously unpublished). [Follows the colourful
history of a formula from 8 th -century Baghdad in the Islamic world and in Europe for over a millennium.]

XII: When the night sky over Qandahar was lit only by stars .... [Text of a lecture delivered in Frankfurt,
Nov., 2001 , previously unpublished; deals with newly-discovered tables for timekeeping by night, computed
in Qandahar ca. 1000, inspired by earlier developments in Baghdad.]

4.5 Astronomical instruments - general

See the description of the project in §3b above.

[Note: Most 19 th - and early-20 th -century works on this subject are reprinted in AIOS (§1 ).]

BS, Mathematisch-

astronomische Darstellungen auf Instrumenterr. idem, Untersuchungen von mathematisch-
astronomischen Darstellungen auf mittelalterlichen Instrumenten islamischer und europaischer Herkunft,
Bassum (D): Verlag fur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 1997. [Includes investigations
of the star-positions on several early astrolabes, including the earliest astrolabes from Baghdad.]

DAK, Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping in Medieval Islamic Civilization, 12 pts., to be published by E. J.
Brill. Contains:

VIII: Astronomical Instrumentation in the Medieval Islamic World (previously unpublished; an Italian
translation of an earlier version was published in 1991). [The entire story begins in and around Baghdad.]

FC, Mathematical Instrumentation in Fourteenth-Century Egypt and Syria - The Illustrated Treatise of Najm
al-Din al-Misrf, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2003. [In this study of a Mamluk treatise describing over 100 different
varieties of astronomical instruments, the early history of the instrument-types is investigated and often
traced back to 9 th - and 10 th -century Baghdad.]

4.6 Astronomical instruments - the astrolabe

DAK, A Catalogue of Medieval Astronomical Instruments. I: Eastern Astrolabes to ca. 1550, not yet
published. [Contains descriptions of two dozen astrolabes from Iraq and Iran during the period 800-1000.]

BS, "Die friiheste bekannte Formgebung der Astrolabien", in Ad radices - Festband zum funfzigjahrigen
Bestehen des Instituts fur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften Frankfurt am Main, Anton von Gotstedter,
ed., Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1994, pp. 315-328. [Discusses the design of the earliest known Islamic
astrolabe from 8 th -century Baghdad, showing that it is identical to the sole surviving Byzantine astrolabe
dated 1062.]

DAK, "The Origin of the Astrolabe according to the Medieval Islamic Sources", Journal of the Flistory of
Arabic Science 5 (1981), pp. 43-83, repr. in idem, Studies (§1), B-lll. [Uses some early Iraqi sources.]

Bashir Faransis and Nasir al-Naqshabandi, "Al-Asturlabat ft Dar al-athar al-'arabiyya fi
Baghdad", Sumer{ Baghdad) 13 (1957), pp. 9-33 and 5 pis., repr. in A/OS (§1) XII [= IMA (§1), vol. 96], pp.
302-331 . [Describes and illustrates five astrolabes, whose present fate is uncertain. The most important of
these is now described in detail in the next entry.]

DAK, "The Oldest Known Astrolabe, from 8 th -Century Baghdad", to appear. [A detailed description made
from defective photos of a tiny astrolabe preserved (at least until April, 2003) in the Archaeological Museum,
Baghdad.]

Bernhard Dorn, "Drei in der Kaiserlichen Offentlichen Bibliothekzu St. Petersburg befindliche astronomische
Instrumente mit arabischen Inschriften", Memoires de I’Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St.-
Petersbourg, Vile serie, 9:1 (1865), pp. 1-150 and 2 figs., repr. in A/OS, I, pp. 345-498. [Describes in an
appendix one astrolabe from 10 th -century Baghdad, whose present location is unknown.]

[Francis R. Maddison], A Supplement to a Cata-logue of Scientific Instru-ments in the Collec-tion of J. A.
Billmeir, Esq., C. B. E., London: Frank Partridge & Sons, 1957. [Describes an astrolabe and an unsigned rete
by Khafif, Baghdad, ca. 875.]

DAK, "Early Islamic Astronomical Instruments in Kuwaiti Collections", in Arlene Fullerton & Geza Fehervari,

eds., Kuwait: Art and Architecture - A Collection of Essays, Kuwait (no publisher stated), 1995, pp. 76-96.
[Contains a description of the earliest dated astrolabe, by Nastulus, and a spectacularly beautiful astrolabe
by the well-known astronomer al-Khujandi, both from 10 th -century Baghdad.]

Paul Kunitzsch, Glossar der arabischen Fachausdrucke in der mittelalterlichen europaischen
Astrolabliteratur, Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983. [The standard work.]

Paul Kunitzsch, "Al-Khwarizmi as a Source for the Sententie astroiabif', in Kennedy Festschrift (§1 ), pp. 227-
236, repr. in idem, Studies (§1 ), IX.

Paul Kunitzsch, "Al-Sufi and the Astrolabe Stars", Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen
Wissenschaften (Frankfurt) 6 (1990), pp. 151-166. [Provides a basis for the study of all Islamic astrolabe
retes.]

Richard P. Lorch, al-Farghani, On the Construction of the Astrolabe, edition, translation and commentary, in
preparation. [Baghdad, ca. 850.]

Richard P. Lorch, edition, translation and commentary on al-Sijzi’s treatise on the astrolabe, in preparation.
[al-SijzT (d. ca. 1020) seems to have spent time in Baghdad; his treatise surveys the contributions of
Baghdad astronomers of the 9 th and 10 th centuries.]

DAK, "The Neglected Astrolabe", in Menso Folkerts, ed., Mathematische Probleme im Mittelalter- Der
lateinische und arabische Sprachbereich, (Wolfenbutteler Mittelalter-Studien, Band 10), Wiesbaden: Otto
Harrassowitz, 1996, pp. 45-55. [Identifies all of the additions to the standard astrolabe that were developed
in the 9 th and 10 th centuries, mainly in Baghdad.]

J. Lennart Berggren, "Abu Sahl al-Kuhi’s Treatise on the Construction of the Astrolabe with Proof: Text,
translation and Commentary", Physis 31 (1994), pp. 142-252. [An important treatise from 10 th -century
Baghdad.]

DAK, "Bringing Astronomical Instruments Back to Earth: The Geographical Data on Medieval Astrolabes
(toca. 1 1 00)", in Between Demonstration and Imagination: Essays in the History of Science and Philosophy
Presented to John D. North, Arjo Vanderjagt & Lodi Nauta, eds., Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999, pp. 3-53. [Includes
data from all available astrolabes up to ca. 1100, including those from 8 th -, 9 th -, and 10 th -century Baghdad.]

George Saliba, "A Sixteenth-Century Drawing of an Astrolabe made by Khafif Ghulam ‘Alt b. ‘Isa (c. 850
A.D.)", Nuncius - Annali di Storia della Scienza (Florence) 6 (1991), pp. 109-119. [Two instruments made by
Khafif in Baghdad and preserved in Oxford are here supplemented by a third, discovered in a faithful
drawing in a 16 th -century manuscript preserved in the Uffizi.]

FC + PS, "Scientific Initiative in 9 th -Century Baghdad: al-Khwarizmi on the Astrolabe and Related Treatises",
to appear. [Text, translation and commentary on the earliest surviving Arabic treatises on the astrolabe and
quadrant.]

DAK + FC, "A Survey of Medieval Islamic Tables for Constructing Astrolabes". Forthcoming. [Contains the
first description of the tables of al-Farghani in Baghdad ca. 850, and traces the development of subsequent
tables of the same kind for a millennium.]

DAK, "A Remarkable Italian Astrolabe from ca. 1300 - Witness to an Ingenious Tradition of Non-Standard
Astrolabes", to appear in a Festschrift for Mara Miniati to be published as a special issue of Nuncius - Annali

di Storia della Scienza (Florence) in 2003. [Describes the only known European example of a tradition of
special astrolabes (based on a mixed north-south stereographic projection) that was introduced in Baghdad
in the late 9 th or early 10 th century.]

4.7 Astronomical instruments - the quadrant

MV, "Medieval Islamic Horary Quadrants for Specific Latitudes and Their Influence on the European
T radition", Suhayl - Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic
Civilisation( Barcelona) 1 (2000), pp. 273-355. [Surveys a tradition that started in Baghdad in the 9 th century
and lasted in Europe until the 17 th century.]

Richard P. Lorch, "Some Early Applications of the Sine Quadrant", Suhayl - Journal for the History of the
Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation (Barcelona) 1 (2000), pp. 251-272. [Based on treatises
from 9 th -century Baghdad.]

DAK, "A Vetustissimus Arabic Text on the Quadrans Vetus", Journal for the History of Astronomy 33 (2002),
pp. 237-255. [The quadrans vetus, an instrument for finding the time of day from the solar altitude for any
latitude, first appeared in Europe in the late 12 th century. A newly-discovered manuscript source establishes
its origins in 9 th -century Baghdad. See the next entry fro a more detailed and more extensive study.]

DAK, Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping in Medieval Islamic Civilization, 12 pts., to be published by E. J.
Brill. Contains:

IXa: On the Early History of the Universal Horary Quadrant for Timekeeping by the Sun (previously
unpublished, but see previous entry for a summary). [The instrument was invented in Baghdad in the
9 th century.]

4.8 Astronomical instruments - miscellaneous

JH, "The Contributions by Abu Nasr ibn ‘Iraq and al-Saghani to the Theory of Seasonal Hour Lines on
Astrolabes and Sundials", Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften (Frankfurt) 14
(2001), pp. 1-30.

Richard P. Lorch and Paul Kunitzsch, "Habash al-Hasib’s Book on the Sphere and its Use", Zeitschrift fur
Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften (Frankfurt) 2 (1985), pp. 68-98, repr. in
Lorch, Sfucf/'es(§1), XIII. [9 th -century Baghdad.]

E. S. Kennedy, Paul Kunitzsch and Richard P. Lorch, The Melon-Shaped Astrolabe in Arabic Astronomy,

( Boethius : Texte und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik und der Naturwissenschaften, Band
43), Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1999. [A study of a treatise by Habash al-Hasib, Baghdad, ca. 850, on an
ingenious astrolabe based on a projection preserving direction and distance to the centre, and including text,
translation and commentary.]

FC + PS, "A Universal Plate for Timekeeping with the Stars by Habash al-Hasib: Text, Translation and
Preliminary Commentary", Suhayl - Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic
Civilisation (Barcelona) 2 (2001), pp. 107-159. [A treatise on a remarkable instrument from 9 th -century
Baghdad - text, translation and commentary.]

DAK, "14 th -Century England or 9 th -Century Baghdad? New insights on the elusive astronomical instrument
called Navicula de Venetiis", to appear in a special issue of Centaurus in 2003, in honour of Bernard R.

Goldstein. [The navicula is the most sophisticated instrument for timekeeping from the European Middle
Ages, precursor of the better-known Uhrtafelchen of Regiomontanus. Its origins in 9 th -century Baghdad are
here investigated, in the light of a more complicated instrument described in the previous entry.]

DAK, "New Light on the Zij al-Safa’ih of Abu Ja’far al-Khazin (II): a remarkable astrolabic instrument from
late-10 th -century Rayy, engraved with astronomical tables to serve an equatorium, preserved in an example
from early-12 th -century Baghdad", in preparation. [A preliminary description based on photos of an
instrument thought to have been lost in WWII was published in 1980 (see DAK, Studies, B-XI). This is here
revised and expanded following the rediscovery of the instrument, more complete than was revealed by the
old photos, in the vaults of the Museum fur Indische Kunst in Berlin.] [A third study of the Zij al-Safa’ih - a
task for the future - will have to take into consideration the lengthy treatise Abu Ja’far al-Khazin relating to
this instrument but also dealing with all manner of problems in mathematical astronomy: a manuscript of this
has recently discovered in a library in India. This third study will be the equivalent of a couple of doctoral
dissertations.]

DAK, Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping in Medieval Islamic Civilization, 12 pts., to be published by E. J.
Brill. Contains:

IXb: On the Early History of the Universal Horary Dial for Timekeeping by the Sun and Stars (previously
unpublished). [Presents the evidence that the device was most probably invented in Baghdad in the
9 th century.]

4.9 Determination of the sacred direction (qibla)

[Note: There are several early studies by Carl Schoy that are not listed here. Also the writings of al-BirunT,
especially the TahdTd, as translated by E. S. Kennedy, are a rich source on early techniques. See King,
World-Maps (§41) for further bibliographical details.]

E. S. Kennedy and Yusuf Id, "A Letter of al-Biruni: Habash al-Hasib’s Analemma for the Qibla", Historia
Mathematica 1 (1973), pp. 3-11, repr. in Kennedy etai., Studies (§1), pp. 621-629.

DAK, "The Earliest Islamic Mathematical Methods and Tables for Finding the Direction of Mecca", Zeitschrift
fur Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften (Frankfurt) 3 (1986), pp. 82-149, with corrections
listed ibid. 4 (1987/88), p. 270, repr. in King, Studies, C-XIV. [Based on newly-discovered texts from 9 th -
century Baghdad.]

E. S. Kennedy, "Applied Mathematics in the Tenth Century: Abu ‘l-Wafa’ Calculates the Distance Baghdad-
Mecca", Historia Mathematica 11 (1984), pp. 193-206, repr. in idem, Studies (§ 1), IV. [Not only the direction
to Mecca, but also the distance to Mecca was of interest to early Muslim astronomers.]

JH, "Al-Nayrizi’s Mysterious Determination of the Azimuth of the Qibla at Baghdad", Sciamvs - Sources and
Commentaries in Exact Sciences (Kyoto, Hokuto, Japan) 1 (2000), pp. 49-70. [A surprising account of the
way in which a small error in a highly sensitive mathematical operation produced a seriously incorrect result.]

See also §4l-4m below.

4.10 Mathematical astrology

For the basic concepts the newcomer should consult R. Ramsey Wright, transl., The Book of Instruction in
the Elements of the Art of Astrology by ... al-Bfruni, London: Luzac&Co., 1934, pending a new edition

currently in preparation.

4.10.1 Early studies by E. S. Kennedy and his colleagues and students include:

E. S. Kennedy, "The Sasanian Astronomical Handbook Zfj-i Shah and the Astrological Doctrine of "Transit"

( mamarr )", Journal of the American Oriental Society 78 (1958), pp. 246-262, repr. in Kennedy et
al., Studies(§ 1), pp. 319-335.

E. S. Kennedy and B. L. van der Waerden, "The World-Year of the Persians", Journal of the American
Oriental Society 83 (1963), pp. 315-327, repr. in Kennedy et al., Studies {§ 1), pp. 338-350.

E. S. Kennedy, "The World-Year Concept in Islamic Astrology", in the Proceedings of the International
Congress of the History of Science, Ithaca, N.Y., 1962, repr. in Kennedy et al., Studies (§ 1), pp. 351-371.

E. S. Kennedy and Haiganoush Krikorian-Preisler, "The Astrological Doctrine of Projecting the Rays", Al-
Abhath (Beirut) 25 (1972), pp. 3-15, repr. in Kennedy et al., Studies (§1), pp. 372-384. [Deals with tables
associated with al-Khwarizmi.]

4.10.2 Other important studies include:

David Pingree, The Thousands of Abu Ma’shar, London: The Warburg Institute, University of London, 1968.
[A brilliant reconstruction of an important lost work by the leading astrologer of 9 th -century Baghdad.]

E. S. Kennedy and David Pingree, The Astrological History of Masha’allah, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1971 . [The first astrological world-history in Arabic, compiled in 8 th -century Baghdad.]

Ana Labarta, ed., Musa ibn Nawbajt, Al-Kitab al-Kamil, Horoscopos histdricos, Madrid & Bellaterra, 1982.
[Another work of the same kind.]

JH, "The Mathematical Structure of Two Islamic Astrological Tables for Casting the Rays", Centaurus 32
(1989), pp. 171-202, and "Mathematical Astrology in the Islamic Tradition" (dealing with houses, rays and
progressions), to appear in the proceedings of a conference "New perspectives on science in medieval
Islam" held at the Dibner Institute, Cambridge, Mass., during Nov. 6-8, 1998. [Deals with some Abbasid
material.]

DAK, "A Hellenistic Astrological Table Deemed Worthy of Being Penned in Gold Ink: the Arabic Tradition of
Vettius Valens’ Auxiliary Function for Finding the Length of Life", to appear in Pingree Festschrift (§1). [On a
remarkable table from 9 th -century Baghdad.]

Bernard R. Goldstein, "The Book on Eclipses of Masha'allah", Physis 6 (1964), 205-13. [A Hebrew version,
ascribed to Abraham ibn Ezra, of an early astrological work, not extant in the original Arabic.]

C. Burnett and A. al-Hamdi, ‘Zadanfarrukh al-Andarzaghar on Anniversary Horoscopes’, Zeitschrift fur
Geschichte der arabisch- islamischen Wissenschaften, 7, 1991/2, pp. 294-398.

C. Burnett, "Al-Kindi on Judicial Astrology: "The Forty Chapters"", Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 3, 1993,
pp. 77-117.

4.10.3 Finally, in both senses, some important new editions of early Islamic astrological works:

Abu Ma'shar, The Abbreviation of the Introduction to Astrology, together with the Medieval Latin translation
of Adelard of Bath, ed. and transl. C. Burnett, K. Yamamoto and M. Yano, Leiden: Brill, 1994.

Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi, Liber intoductorii maioris ad scientiam judiciorum astrorum, ed. Richard Lemay, 9
vols., Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1995-96.

The Liber Aristotilis of Hugo of Santalla, eds C. Burnett and D. Pingree, Warburg Institute Surveys and Texts
26, London: Warburg Institute, 1997.

Scientific Weather Forecasting in the Middle Ages: The Writings ofAI-Kindi, ed. and transl. Gerrit Bos and C.
Burnett, London: Kegan Paul International, 2000.

Abu Ma’shar, On Historical Astrology. The Book of Religions and Dynasties (On the Great Conjunctions), K.
Yamamoto and C. Burnett, 2 vols., Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000.

Abu Ma’shar on Historical Astrology, The Book of Religions and Dynasties (On the Great Conjunctions), ed.
and transl. K. Yamamoto and C. Burnett, 2 vols, Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Paul Kunitzsch, "The Chapter on the Fixed Stars in Zaradusht’s Kitab al-mawalid", Zeitschrift fur Geschichte
der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften (Frankfurt) 8 (1993), pp. 241-249.

Hermes, Liber de stellis beibeniis, Paul Kunitzsch, ed., in Hermetis Trismegisti Astrologica et
Divinatoria( Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis, CXLIV C = Hermes Latinus IV, iv), Turnhout:
Brepols, 2001, pp. 7-107.

4.10.4 Note also:

Al-Qabisi, Introduction to Astrology, ed. and transl. C. Burnett, K. Yamamoto and M. Yano, Warburg
Institute, Studies and Texts, London: Warburg Institute, 2003 (in press).

Kushyar ibn Labban’s Introduction to Astrology, ed. and transl. M. Yano, Tokyo: Institute for the Study of
Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1997.

Kushyar Ibn Labban’s Introduction to Astrology, M. Yano, ed., Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages
and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1997. [An important introductory work.]

4.11 Geodetic measurements

Raymond P. Mercier, "Geodesy" in J. B. Harley and David Woodward, eds., The History of Cartography, vol.
2, book 1 : Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies, Chicago, III. & London:

University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 175-188. [An important overview. There were problems with the later
reception of the Abbasid results - see further Ragep, al-Tusf’s Tadhkira (§4b).]

Y. Tzvi Langermann, "The Book of Bodies and Distances of Habash al-Hasib", Centaurus 28 (1985), pp.
108-128. [Includes an account of the first Muslim geodetic measurements by Habash, Baghdad, ca. 825.]

DAK, "Too Many Cooks ... - A Newly-Rediscovered Account of the First Islamic Geodetic
Measurements", Suhayl - Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic
Civilisation (Barcelona), 1 (2000), pp. 71-99. [The account of the judge appointed by the Caliph al-Ma’mun to
oversee the measurements.]

4.12 Mathematical geography and cartography

Hans von Mzik, ed., Das Kitab Surat al-ard des ... al-Khuwarizmi ... , Leipzig: Otto Harras-sowitz, 1926 (repr.
in Islamic Geography (§ 1), vol. 11 (1992)). [An important contribution to early Abbasid mathematical
geography; based on the unique manuscript in Strasbourg.]

Kennedy & Kennedy, Islamic Geographical Coordinates'. E. S. Kennedy and Mary Helen
Kennedy, Geographical Coordinates of Localities from Islamic Sources, Frankfurt am Main: Institut fur
Geschichte der Arabisch-lslamischen Wissenschaften, 1987. [Data collected from over 70 different sources
and organized according to place-names, increasing longitudes and latitudes, and sources.]

E. S. Kennedy, "Suhrab and the World-Map of Ma’mun", in Aaboe Festschrift (§ 1) pp. 113-119. [Describes
the coordinate grid used on the first Arabic world-map, from early-9 th -century Baghdad.]

Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, X-XII: Mathematische Geographie und Kartographie im
Islam und ihr Fortleben im Abendland, Frankfurt am Main: Institut fur Geschichte der Arabisch-lslamischen
Wissenschaften, 2000. [A monumental study that goes beyond the usual framework and format of
the GASvolumes to provide a complete historical overview of Islamic cartography, starting in the 9 th century,
and its influence in Europe.]

DAK, World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca: Innovation and Tradition in Islamic
Science, Leiden: E. J. Brill, and London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1999. [Deals with 17 th -
century Iranian world-maps, based on mathematical techniques first developed in Baghdad in the 9 th and
10 th centuries. This early origin was only hypothesized, not proven. See now the review by Jan Hogendijk
in Historia Mathematica 30 (2003), pp. 85-93, and also the next entry, on some new materials confirming the
early origin.]

DAK, Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping in Medieval Islam, Leiden: E. J. Brill, in press, especially:

X: Architecture and Astronomy: The Sacred Direction in Islam (reprints of earlier studies and new text). [Part
Xc contains new information on the mathematics underlying the map-grids discussed in the previous entry,
firmly establishing its original inspiration (by a solution to the qibla-problem involving ellipses) at the latest by
the 10 th century.]

4.13 Sacred folk geography

DAK, The World about the Kaaba - The Sacred Folk Geography of Medieval Islam, to be submitted to E. J.
Brill, Leiden. [Contains some Abbasid material and presents a reconstruction the three schemes of sacred
geography devised by Ibn Suraqa in Basra in the late 10 th century. A summary is in the article "Makka. iv. As
centre of the World" in El 2 (§1 ).]

4.14 Folk astronomy

PS, Volksastronomische Abhandlungen aus dem mittelalterlichen arabisch-islamischen Kulturraum, doctoral
dissertation in preparation (Institute for History of Science, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt).
[Some 13 th -century Yemeni treatises on folk astronomy are full of surprises: references to a sahib al-waqt in
Mecca ca. 900, responsible for timekeeping; records of the astronomical alignment of the Kaaba; and
information about the development in the 8 th century of the definitions of the times of prayer which later
became standard.]

4.15 Sacred cosmology

Anton Heinen, Islamic Cosmology: A Study of as-Suyuti’s al-Hay’a al-saniya fi-l-hay’a al-sunniya, Beiruter
Texte und Studien (Orient-lnstitut der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft), Band 27, Beirut (for
Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden), 1982. [Identifies the origins of the Islamic tradition in the work of the 10 th -
century scholar Abu ‘l-Shaykh, a companion of the tradition-specialist Abu Da’ud, apparently in Basra. The
materials collected by al-Suyuti are mainly 7 th -century in origin.]

4.16 Miscellaneous

E. S. Kennedy, "al-Khwarizmi on the Jewish Calendar", Scripta Mathematica 27 (1964), pp. 55-59, repr. in
Kennedy et al., Studies (§1), pp. 661-665

DAK, "A Medieval Account of Algebra before al-Khwarizmi", al-Masaq: Studia Arabo-lslamica Mediterranea 1
(1988), pp. 25-32. [The report relates to 7 th -century Mecca, and is partly based on fantasy.]

Menso Folkerts, Die alteste lateinische Schrift uber das indische Rechnen nach al-Hwarizmi, Munich: Beck,
1997. [Based on a newly-discovered manuscript. The original Arabic is lost.]

Paul Kunitzsch, "The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives", in the proceedings of a conference
"New perspectives on science in medieval Islam" held at the Dibner Institute, Cambridge, Mass., during Nov.
6-8, 1 998, pp. 3-21 . [On the early history of the so-called Hindu-Arabic numerals in Islamic civilization.]

Regis Morelon, "Fragment arabe du premier livre du Phaseis de Ptolemee", Journal for the History of Arabic
Science 5 (1981), pp. 3-22.